Group seeks greater transparency from City

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A new group formed of concerned citizens is hoping to gather support to seek greater transparency from Lethbridge city council and to gather enough momentum to effect change at city hall.

The Lethbridge Transparency Council formed about six months ago, says founding member David Hughes.

“There are a lot of questions taxpayers have, and we sit around coffee shops and homes and we bitch and complain,” he says. “We don’t seem to have any vehicle to be able to address our concerns. We hope the Lethbridge Transparency Council will be able to help find and give direction. We’ll get the facts and present the truth to the citizens of Lethbridge and let them make their own decisions.”

“We can’t be the only ones who are concerned and confused, and having the same conversations,” agrees fellow LTC founding member Mandy DeCecco-Kolebaba. “So why not create a group so that we are all getting the same answers to the same questions instead of being part of the problem and complaining all the time? We can instead hopefully start to create change. There are plenty of citizens not happy with city council’s tender process, their spending process, and we can, as a collective group, speak as one and let them know we are not happy with this. There is strength in numbers.”

The LTC has concerns with the current council’s fiscal policies, the City’s top-heavy civil service and social concerns like downtown safety and the Supervised Consumption Site.

“We are looking to ensure the next council after the next election will understand and fulfil its job,” says Jeff De Jong, another LTC founding member, “which is to provide vision for the City of Lethbridge and to keep City administration accountable. For example, we don’t understand how in a world that’s been in recession for three years how we can still be a city in an upward swing of increasing cost-ofliving allowances for City staff ... How is it council’s only mechanism is to approve a four per cent increase in the budget? It doesn’t make sense to us.”

When asked what the LTC brings to the table that other local organizations like the Downtown BRZ, the Chamber of Commerce and BILD Lethbridge do not already provide, Hughes says the difference is his group members are not beholden to any one business interest or agenda.

“We don’t owe anybody anything,” Hughes states. “Those other organizations are looking over their shoulders trying not to offend anybody. We’re not going to be that group. All we want is what is best for the city.”

DeCecco-Kolebaba wants to encourage citizens who are concerned or confused about the direction the city is going to consider coming out and getting involved with the Lethbridge Transparency Council.

“We’re not hostile,” she says. “We’re not partisan. We’re not left or right. We do not think our voice is the only one out there, but if there are 20 or 30 people who have the same questions, like we do, there has got to be maybe 30,000 other people in Lethbridge who have those same questions. Instead having coffee and complaining about it, let’s work together to do something about it to effect some change.”

For more information on the Lethbridge Transparency Council visit the group’s Facebook page.

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